Bob Dylan/London,UK 7.19.1978

The 1978 world tour in which Bob Dylan formed a big band began in Japan, and the first leg was to tour Australia. After that, the second leg of the tour around Europe began with the recording of the album “STREET LEAGAL”, but it started at Earl’s Court in London. Yes, this is the venue where great artists such as ZEP and Floyd held concerts. Dylan also chose this venue for his first concert in the UK since 1966. Moreover, the performances at Earl’s Court were for six consecutive nights, which excited the British fans greatly. From these performances, it is well known that the final day of the performance, June 20th, was released at the time as an LP titled “EARL’S COURT”. However, for the rest, even including the CD, the performance on the 18th was only released as “TALES OF YANKEE POWER”. All I can say is that this was an unfortunate treatment considering that such a series of large-scale performances were held at such a historic venue. The Paris performance that took place after this was blessed with better sound sources, and compared to the many items that had been released, the situation was in stark contrast until now. Therefore, this time, we will release the sound source of the Earl’s Court June 19th performance, which is the first appearance. If you have listened to ZEP’s recordings, you will understand, but if you make a mistake when recording an audience at this venue, you may end up surrounded by a deep echo. However, this recording is a wonderful one that firmly conveys the power of the performance with amazing clarity and high sound pressure. It is speculated that the reason why such a superb sound source was not made into a disc until now was due to the shaking of the stereo recording caused by the deterioration of the master over time. This time we have restored that state and cleaned up the state of the original sound source. Since the recording originally has outstanding clarity, converting it to monaural will eliminate all the shaking, but at the cost of reducing the rich clearness. Therefore, we restored the parts with large disturbances and corrected them to a stable state as much as possible while leaving the stereo as is. Except for the dropout at around 2 minutes and 50 seconds of “Just Like A Woman”, which caused the most damage, it has been repaired considerably. Dylan’s stage at Earl’s Court in 1978, which was played back with such clearness, is truly wonderful! It is often pointed out regarding the 1978 tour, but it is clear that the true nature of the big band intended by Dylan was demonstrated after the European tour, rather than the official live album “AT BUDOKAN”. You can clearly feel it just by listening to the cover of the blues “Love With Her Feeling” played at the opening. The band, which has toured Japan and Australia, has become even more cohesive, giving us a performance with momentum and space. In addition, “Baby Stop Crying” and “Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)” have already been added to the repertoire from the newly recorded “STREET LEAGAL”. Both performances are polite yet full of fresh atmosphere, and are probably unique to the album before its release. And speaking of this tour, the entertainment route where Dylan sings with a big band has been pushed to the front. Dylan also sings “Just Like A Woman” in an enka style (lol) to the point where you can hear his fists. When the completed entertainer stage was unveiled at Earl’s Court, the London audience went wild. During the encore, there was a scene in which an excited woman repeatedly shouted “we want Dylan!” It’s a very memorable scene, so I credited it as one of the tracks. Live at Earls Court, London, England 19th June 1978 TRULY AMAZING/PERFECT SOUND Disc 1 (63:58) 1. Introduction 2. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (inst) 3. Love Her With a Feeling 4. Baby Stop Crying 5. Mr. Tambourine Man 6. Shelter From the Storm 7. Love Minus Zero / No limit 8. Tangled Up In Blue 9. Ballad of A Thin Man 10. Maggies Farm 11. I Don’t Believe You 12. Like A Rolling Stone 13. I Shall be Released 14. Going, Going Gone Disc 2 (70:32) 1. Rainy Day Women #12&35 (inst) 2. One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) 3. You’re A Big Girl Now 4. One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below) 5. Blowin’ In The Wind 6. I Want You 7. Senor (Tales of Yankee Power) 8. Masters Of War 9. Just Like A Woman 10. To Ramona 11. All Along The Watchtower 12. All I Really Want To Do 13. Band Introductions 14. It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) 15. Forever Young 16. “We Want Dylan!” 17. The Times They Are A-Changin’ Bob Dylan – Vocals & Guitar Billy Cross – Guitar Alan Pasqua – Keyboards Steven Soles – Guitar & Backing Vocals David Mansfield – Violin & Mandolin Steve Douglas – Horns Jerry Scheff – Bass Bobbye Hall – Percussion Ian Wallace – Drums Helena Springs – Backing Vocals Jo Ann Harris – Backing Vocals Carolyn Dennis – Backing Vocals